Last week was our quarterly staff awards celebration. At Mustard Tree, we work to five core values and strive to show them in every single thing that we do, in how we treat each other, our volunteers and how every person that walks through our doors should be made to feel.

We have grown quite rapidly recently, with a staff number of over 40! It was great to have everyone together in one room to welcome new faces, mixed with those who’ve been here a while and celebrate what we’ve accomplished as a team and what exciting things we’ve got to come!

Our values cards, one for each value, were used by everyone as a way to nominate. Anytime somebody did or said something that really showed that particular value, write it on a card and post it in the box. The person that had the most of each particular value would win that award. This means things that can get overlooked or not appreciated are recognised and rewarded.

Our values are:

Dignity for all – Creating a culture of compassion, kindness and respect

Valuing Diversity – seeing and understanding people’s differences and embracing them to make us stronger

Creating Opportunity – Putting opportunity and development at the heart of everything we do

Commit to Partnership – Working together to build strong relationships based on mutual trust

Belief in people – Empowering people and communities to empower themselves

They are incredibly important to us and we think it makes Mustard Tree a better place to be. Find out more about our values and approach

Well done to our winners: Sophie for Opportunity, Jacquie for Diversity, George for Dignity, Rachel for Partnership and Ellie for Belief!

We also had our ‘values champion award’, which went to the person who had been nominated in every category and has worked hard to display every single value – well done to Anoushka!

All of our staff do an incredible job reaching out to thousands of people every year across Greater Manchester, whether delivering furniture, developing fundraising and corporate partnerships or engaging some of the most isolated into our Mustard Tree community.